Thursday, December 28, 2006

It's Stan Lee's Birthday!

And I hope it's a happy one! Co-creator of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor, Daredevil, and Paste-Pot Pete! (Okay, so they weren't all home runs.) Seriously, it's amazing to consider how many stories Stan wrote over his 60+ year career, and more importantly, how many were damn good. Fantastic Four 1-102 (the Lee/Kirby run) is still pretty much the benchmark for superhero comics, and the Lee/Ditko and Lee/Romita Spider-Man are also classics. I also have a great fondness for his work with Kirby on the Tales Of Suspense run of Cappy adventures, and the first issues of Cap's own book in the late 60's. Really fantastic stuff.

I've been fortunate enough to meet Mr. Lee on a couple of occasions, even did a TV appearance with him once, and he was never less than enthusiastic, gracious and... well, he was just like Stan Lee! He was even kind enough to write me a "fan letter" early in my career, when I was just starting out with my comic book THE AMERICAN... talk about making my day! My week! My year! (It's hard not to fall into Stan-speak when talking about the man.)

1 Comments:

Stan Lee is one of my heroes. Lee and Kirby were The Beatles of comics. No one can touch them.

I met him at the New York comic convention in 1970-something. I was a teenager and snuck into an "invitation only" cocktail party for the "pros". I was interested in writing for comics and asked him if I could talk to him. He said, "After two cocktails, I'll talk to anybody." And he proceeded to give me some advice and was very polite. I'll never forget that. Whatta cool guy.

About Me

Mark is currently executive producer of ASH VS EVIL DEAD for the Starz network. Previous TV work includes DAREDEVIL, CONSTANTINE, HEMLOCK GROVE, FALLING SKIES, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, HEROES, SMALLVILLE, THE STRIP, TIMECOP (the series), CAPRICA, FREAKYLINKS, MARTIAL LAW and PERVERSIONS OF SCIENCE.
Screenwriter on #1 boxoffice movies TIMECOP and THE MASK, and the not #1 but still fun feature MY NAME IS BRUCE starring Bruce Campbell. I've also scribbled out nearly 125 comic books including THE AMERICAN, ALIENS, PREDATOR, THE PHANTOM, SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN/BATMAN.